Search: “kuwait”

Up until yesterday, I had never been to the Tareq Rajab Museums. I’m aware that’s odd considering I’ve been blogging about things to do and places to visit in Kuwait for 15 years now, but for some reason, I never thought of passing by the museums until yesterday. There are two Tareq Rajab museums, the Tareq Rajab Museum of Islamic Art and the main Tareq Rajab Museum, both located in Jabriya and are close to each other.

Tareq Rajab Museum of Islamic Art
This first museum is located right across from the New English School. I actually wasn’t aware there were two museums until I got there using Google Maps. I typed Tareq Rajab in Google Maps and clicked on the first result but when I got there it didn’t look like the museum I had driven by before. So I asked security about it he told me that was the other museum located down the block. This museum focused on Islamic art and housed an extensive collection of Islamic calligraphy, old Korans and the famous Ka’aba coverings.

Although the building looks large from the outside, the museum itself wasn’t that big and could be covered in under 30 minutes. Opening hours are Saturday to Thursday 9AM to 12PM and 4PM to 7PM. While on Fridays the museum is open from 9AM to 12PM. I’d call (25317358) and double-check before heading there though since yesterday the museums were open till 1PM and not 12PM. Here is the location on Google Maps. The entrance fee is KD2.

Tareq Rajab Museum
After quickly going through the Islamic Art Museum I got in my car and drove down the block to the main museum. Although the building on the outside isn’t as impressive as the Islamic Art Museum, once you walk down into the basement where the museum is located, you’ll quickly realize this museum is much bigger with a lot more things on display (over 10,000 pieces on display according to their website).

The museum is divided into two areas. The first area contains calligraphy, manuscripts, miniatures, ceramics, metalwork, glass and jade, wood and stone-carvings. The second area contains objects which were produced in the Islamic world during the last 250 years including costumes, textiles, jewelry, weapons, and musical instruments.

I loved this museum since there were so many things to check out and they were all displayed pretty nicely. I was not expecting it to be this organized or this big, so I was really surprised and also kind of disappointed in myself that it took me this long to visit it.

Like the Islamic Museum, the opening hours to this museum is from Saturday to Thursday 9AM to 12PM and then from 4PM to 7PM. Fridays the museum is also open from 9AM to 12PM. Here is the location on Google Maps. The entrance fee is KD2.

Here is a link to their website.
Here is a link to more information on the museums.

Many of you have probably ordered an item online because it wasn’t available in Kuwait. But, what do you do if that item breaks down?

Last month, my Breville coffee machine developed a leak. I didn’t realize at first since the leak wasn’t that much, but then the leak got worse and I started finding a pool of water under my coffee machine. Since they don’t sell Breville coffee machines in Kuwait there wasn’t much I could do so I continued using the machine and just dried up the pool of water whenever it formed. Eventually, the leak got even worse and it was short-circuiting the machine and shutting off the power to my whole apartment. I stopped using my machine and started having my coffee at Arabica, but that gets pretty expensive really fast. 2 lattes + a Pain au Chocolat every day (best Pain au Chocolat period so I can’t resist) is just over KD80 a month. I had to make a decision, either I needed to get a new machine or fix the one I have.

I decided to open up my coffee machine to see exactly what was leaking and right away I found the problem. Turns out the leak was coming from the internal boiler, whenever the water heated it up, the boiler would start leaking from the top. I shot a video which you can see above. I googled my problem and found out the issue was because of the o-rings, little circular rubber pieces that are located between the tubing and the boiler unit.

Breville doesn’t sell these pieces themselves, but I ended up finding a store in Australia that sold an o-ring kit for around 3.5KD. I ordered the kit and once it arrived I found a video on YouTube of a guy changing the o-rings on his Breville coffee machine and copied what he did on mine.

End result? My coffee machine is working again! I sorted out all the leaks and I’m back to making my coffee at home. I was lucky my coffee machine was a pretty easy fix but it’s something you’re always risking when buying stuff online. But, if you ever develop a problem, it’s worth trying to fix it yourself before throwing it out. You don’t have anything to lose anyway.

A few weeks ago I reviewed the Chevrolet Bolt EV which is the first fully electric car that’s being sold in Kuwait and yesterday, a friend sent me the pictures above. It seems that Alghanim will be setting up electric charging stations around Kuwait and the one above is located in the Hamra Tower parking lot. This should help make the Bolt a more desirable and practical vehicle.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time you probably already know how nostalgic I am which is why I also love old video games. Over the years I’ve posted about a variety of game consoles including ones that allow you to play old video games like the Pandora and Dingoo. LDK Game is a console I recently picked up and I’m so in love with it!

Firstly just a bit of background. My first game console ever with the Coleco which my parents got in me in the early 80s. Since then I’ve gone through everything from the Sakhr MSX2 and Commodore, up to the current consoles like the PS4 and Switch. My favorite console ever would have to be the Super Nintendo followed closely in second by the Sega Dreamcast.

The LDK Game is a pretty tiny portable unit that plays nearly every console from the 80s and 90s including a lot of games from the original PlayStation. For such a small (and cheap) game system it just blows my mind how well it does playing some of my favorite games. Out of the box, all you need to do is plug the unit into your computer via a regular USB cable and it will then show up as an external hard drive. You can then just drag and drop the games (roms) onto the unit in the proper folders, so SNES games in the SNES folder and PlayStation games in the PlayStation folder and that’s pretty much it. You then just launch the games using one of the many built-in emulators. If there is a missing emulator (like the MSX or Coleco one) you can then just download them and install them easily. Currently, I have games from the following consoles running on my LDK:

Coleco
DOS
Gameboy
Gameboy Advance
Mame
MSX
NeoGeo
Nintendo Entertainment System
Sega Game Gear
Sega Genesis
Sega Master System
Sinclair
Sony PlayStation
Super Nintendo

In addition to the above, I also have Doom, Quake, Wolf 3D and Duke Nukem 3D installed. I really have 90% of my favorite games ever running on this tiny console.

All the games I have installed run flawlessly. Older consoles like the NES and Gameboy obviously run flawlessly on many other systems but I used to run into issues running some SNES games on my previous game consoles. I don’t have that issue here, and not only that, somehow this unit can run PlayStation games. Not all of them mind you, 3D intensive games like Tekken run but aren’t playable on this but 2D games like Castlevania, NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat Trilogy run perfectly, and games like Ridge Racer, Tony Hawk 2 and GranTurismo seem to also run really well. Another surprise was the fact that it also ran DOS games. I managed to install some really old games like Prince of Persia, Test Drive 3, Captain Comic and even the original Need for Speed and they all ran flawlessly. Oh and even sprite intense NeoGeo games like Metal Slug and Mars Matrix run without a hint of slowdown.

The screen has a 4:3 ratio which means you can play old games without having awkward black bars on the sides like you do when playing old games on your new TV. The sound is also fairly loud because there are two speakers on the back but you can also plug in your headphones if you prefer. The LDK has 6 buttons, four on the front and two shoulder buttons which means you won’t have issues controlling SNES or PlayStation games.

The coolest thing about the LDK Game though is that it sells for just $56! That’s not a lot to pay for a game console that can basically run ALL the cool old games. In fact, if it only ran Castlevania Symphony of the Night I would have paid $56 to get it and not only does it run it and really well, but I can also play Super Metroid, NHL ’94, Neo Drift and a ton of other games all on the same device. I still can’t believe I can play Symphony of the Night on this! Even the battery life is great running at over 4 hours and because it uses a standard USB port, you can charge it on the go with any battery pack.

I ordered the console from the LDK website and shipped it to my US forwarding mailbox. But, the device ended up shipping from China so if I was to order it again I’d ship it straight to Kuwait or at least my Shop&Ship Chinese mailbox. If you want to get one, here is a link to their website.

My main travel suitcase for the last decade has been my indestructible black Tumi. I’ve traveled with it all over the world and loved it so much I even posted about it on the blog a few years ago. But, around five years ago I spotted a beautiful aluminum Rimowa bag with another traveler at the airport, it was dented, scratched up and I just fell in love with the look. I decided once my Tumi fell apart I’d buy one but that day didn’t seem like it was ever going to come since my Tumi just wouldn’t die on me. So last week, I decided to forcefully retire my Tumi.

A friend of mine wanted to buy a Rimowa polycarbonate bag so I tagged along with her to the dealer. While at the store I found out that they had just gotten a new shipment of silver range of aluminum bags. The dealer tends to get a limited number of them (in this case it was 2 of each size) and the silver ones tend to sell out quickly. I was already tempted as is but they also had a silent sale going on so the bag I wanted was selling for slightly less than it did online AND to top it off, the dealer had gotten last years model (the Topas) with the now discontinued “Electronic Tag” feature which I’ve been fascinated with ever since they launched it. So I decided to take the plunge and get the bag (yes I used the word plunge here for buying a bag, but you’ll understand why later when I talk about the price).

I really think this is the hottest looking bag you can buy period. I haven’t packed it away in my cupboard yet and so every time I pass by it I can’t help but admire the design. The bag is made of aluminum and is held together by rivets. It’s a thin sheet of metal so the suitcase tends to dent which although sounds like a negative, is actually one of the reasons people are attracted to it. Bags will get worn out and scratched up with travel, but the more worn out and scratched up the Rimowa bags get, the more interesting and personalized they start looking. It’s why other manufacturers have also started introducing aluminum suitcases as well.

Then you have the “Electronic Tag” feature. This was Rimowa’s innovative idea where they wanted to replace the paper barcode tags they stick on luggage with digital versions. The idea was you’d check-in your suitcase and the airline would wirelessly transmit the tag to your luggage and it would be displayed on the screen. Only 4 airlines ever signed up to it and the idea never took off so Rimowa discontinued it last year. But, what I was interested in was the ability to customize that screen. You see Rimowa also allowed you to upload whatever personal information and image you wanted to that screen using their app. That’s why I wanted the “Electronic Tag” and that’s the first thing I did when I got the bag. The screen now has my name, email and phone number, with an image of my previous car which I had taken.

The screen magically doesn’t require any batteries to display the image. It uses two AAA batteries to power the Bluetooth connection, but once you transfer over the image and data, you can just remove the batteries and the screen will stay on indefinitely. No idea how that works, I still need to read up on the screen technology but I love it. But, although the screen is one way of customizing my bag, I still need to put a few stickers on it and I have a lot saved up to choose from.

The reason why it’s taken me so long to buy this bag isn’t only because my Tumi was refusing to die, but also because these bags are so freakin’ expensive. The bag I got isn’t really big, I think it’s their smallest check-in size and with the 10% discount they had, the bag cost me KD280. That’s really expensive and even when I made up some random maths in my head to try and convince myself that it made sense (280 spread over 10 years is just 28 a year!), it still didn’t make any sense. But, it’s something I’ve wanted for some time now and since I didn’t travel over Eid I figured at least I could buy a new suitcase.

One interesting thing I found out is that Jashanmal will no longer be the dealers for Rimowa in Kuwait which is why they currently have the bags discounted. This was the last shipment of Rimowa bags the dealer will be getting and that’s because last year the company LVMH (they own Louis Vuitton and a gazillion other premium brands) purchased Rimowa. So the dealership in Kuwait is now changing hands and my guess is that Habchi & Chalhoub, the company that has LV in Kuwait will be taking over the brand. They also have the rights for the Tumi brand in Kuwait, so no idea how that’s gonna work out for them.

If you’re interested in a Rimowa suitcase then this might be a good time to get one with their discounts. They’re available at the Jashanmal store in Kuwait City as well as their store in Avenues “Around the World”.

A few weeks ago I ordered a new turntable (Fluance RT81) from Amazon since the one I had was from the 60s and sounded great when playing old stuff, but not so great with newer music. Once the record player arrived I decided I’d look for a new pair of speakers that I would just use with it. I ended up passing by Xcite and narrowing down my options to the KEF LSX and The Sixes by Klipsch. Both sounded great, The Sixes looked retro which matched well with my player but they were also fairly big and bulky. The KEF were a perfect size, but they didn’t have the retro look of The Sixes which I liked. In the end, I decided not to buy either one because the KEF cost KD340 and the Klipsch KD240. I already had my B&O Beolit 15 speaker which I wasn’t using, so I decided to connect that to the turntable instead and save myself some money.

No bullshit, a few days later I log into Reddit from my browser and noticed someone had sent me a direct message with the chat feature. I check Reddit from my phone daily but the app I use doesn’t support chat and so I didn’t know someone had tried contacting me. The message was two weeks old from someone at Xcite asking me if I’d be interested in reviewing the KEF LSX. I right away replied back with my phone number hoping I wasn’t too late. A few days later I headed to Xcite to pick up the speakers to review.

Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this speaker to keep. They’ve been very supportive of the blog from the very early days and they’ve lent or given me a number of items over the years to review, as well as hooking me up with discounts. I’m a huge Xcite fan.

The KEF’s turned out to be a perfect size for my turntable. They don’t overpower it and although they don’t look retro, they did fit in looking very cool on my cabinet. The speakers come in five different colors but I opted for black since it would match my space better. All the colors are clad in a fabric made by the Danish contemporary textile designer, Kvadrat so the speakers look and feel very premium (they’re also pretty heavy).

Each one of the KEF speakers has it’s own built-in amplifier so I had to connect each speaker to a separate power outlet. The reason for this is the speakers can be used wirelessly and placed in different areas around the room so they each need their own power supply. The KEF has four sources of input, Bluetooth, WiFi, optical input and a 3.5mm auxiliary input. I connected the record player through the auxiliary input and as soon as I played one of my records I was completely blown away. I didn’t think records could sound so good or clear, that partially had to do with the fact I had previously been listening to records with my vintage record player but it also had to do with the fact how good these speakers sounded. For their small size, the speakers were crystal clear and fairly loud. I could hear so many different layers of instruments and even at max volume, they never distorted or sounded muddy. In fact, the speakers sounded so good I started researching KEF speakers for my home theater.

For those of you who are interested in wirelessly connecting to the speakers, other than Bluetooth they support Airplay 2 and have Spotify and Tidal built-in. Although I’m using it with an analog connection to my record player, I do have the speakers connected to my WiFi network so I could connect to it with the KEF app. The KEF app allows you to manage all the settings of the speaker including the volume control, input port as well as various detailed sound options.

Speaking of the volume control, there are some downsides to these speakers with the main one for me being the lack of a physical volume knob. The only way to lower or raise the volume is with the included remote control or through the KEF app. I guess that’s practical if you don’t want to get off the couch, but with my vinyl player I tend to spend a lot of time up next to it swapping records and flipping them over, so I want to be able to reach out and raise or lower the volume without having to pick up the remote. The other negative is the lack of deep bass. Although most reviewers online state the unit has good bass, that really depends on the music you listen to. I wouldn’t listen to electronic music with these speakers, not unless I attach them to a subwoofer (it has a subwoofer output port). But since most of my vinyls are composed of old music from the 70s or MTV Unplugged sessions, the speakers performed really well without needing a subwoofer.

At KD340 these speakers aren’t cheap, but then again you wouldn’t be looking at KEF speakers if you wanted something cheap. The best way to really appreciate these speakers is by listening to them in a quiet environment because no matter how many YouTubers say these speakers are great, you’re not gonna know what great sounds like unless you hear them in person. Personally, I think these speakers sound incredible, so much so that I’ve been trying to figure out how to make more use of them since I don’t use my turntable a lot and I really want to listen to these speakers more.

If you’d like to hear the speakers, they’re on display at the large Xcite in Avenues and their Al-Rai location. The speakers are also available on their website.

Yesterday Jazeera Airways announced they are going to start flying to London starting October 27th. There will be daily flights and the trip to London will take 6 hours and 20 minutes while the journey back will take 7 hours and 5 minutes.

Jazeera Airways will fly their Airbus A320 neo to London which isn’t a big plane and they fly in and out of Gatwick not Heathrow. I picked out a random date to check out the price (November 1 going, November 4 return) and compared it with BA and Kuwait airways and this is what I got:

Jazeera Airways: KD 99.050
British Airways: KD 132.800
Kuwait Airways: KD 135.600

So you’re saving around KD 30 in this case although I’ve seen Kuwait Airways flights as low as KD 113. Too soon to tell if this will be a good option to fly to London, I’d be curious to read peoples reviews once they’ve started the route.

Around a month ago, Trolley launched ICEE drinks in its convenience stores across Kuwait. If you’ve never had ICEE before they’re frozen carbonated drinks that come in fruit or soda flavors. At first, Trolley launched ICEE with only fruit flavors which I’m not a fan of, but this past weekend they started rolling out the cola flavor across their stores so I decided to pass by and try it out.

I ended up going to the Trolley location in Mansouriya which is the largest one in Kuwait. I think the gas station it’s located in is also the largest in Kuwait and looked brand new as well.

In the States they have Pepsi and Coke flavored ICEE which is what I was hoping to find but Trolley right now has the generic ICEE Cola flavor instead. Doesn’t taste quite as good as Pepsi or Coke but is good enough if you’re looking for a drink to quickly cool you down.

ICEE comes in three sizes:
Small – 750fils
Medium – KD1
Large – KD1.250

I’m not sure if all the Trolley’s have ICEE machines or the cola flavor, but if you want more info you can always check the Trolley page on instagram @trolley_kw

Early this year I decided I wanted to get a cool classic car and not sure how exactly, but I ended up deciding on an old Alfa Romeo, specifically the 1750 GTV. So I started looking all over the web for a car that fit my requirements and I ended up finding a couple in the US, one in Sweden and one in Germany but in the end, I found a perfect one in the Netherlands at a family-run classic car dealership called Gallery Aaldering. After a few emails back and forth, I decided to fly out to Holland to check the car in person. The place was insane! It was 4 floors and filled with so many beautiful and pristine condition classic cars. It was like a museum except everything was for sale. While there I actually didn’t give the Alfa much attention at first because I ended up falling in love with a Lancia Fulvia Coupe 1600 HF. But after I test drove the Alfa and left the dealership did it start to settle in and I knew I wanted it.

This was back in April and once I got back to Kuwait I proceeded with the purchase. It took around 8 weeks to finalize the paperwork and get the car registered for exporting and it finally shipped to Kuwait this past Monday.

One thing I realized through this whole process is that very few people in Kuwait know what the process is for importing a classic car. There is a lot of misinformation and the whole thing is just confusing so I decided I would share the process on the blog.

So this is what I was told, but keep in mind laws change all the time and there are various exceptions that can be made so use this info just as a starting point. Firstly cars are divided into three categories and each has different rules:

New Cars
Cars less than 5 years old are considered new. Both expats and Kuwaitis can import these cars without much of a hassle.

Old Cars
Cars older than 5 years but less than 40 years are considered old. Expats aren’t allowed to import old cars while Kuwaitis are allowed to import one old car in their lifetime.

Classic Cars
Cars that are older than 40 years are considered classics. Expats aren’t allowed to import classic cars while Kuwaitis are allowed to import one classic car every two years.

Now I’ve also heard from people I know that cars older than 20 or 25 years are considered classic. I can’t verify that since I was told by a car importer that it has to be older than 40 years old. But I was also told exceptions can be made. If you get a paper from a dealership stating the car you’re importing is special or rare, then from my understanding, the car doesn’t follow any of the rules listed above.

Since I’m not Kuwaiti I’m importing the car under a friends name. I’m using a local logistics company called Transcrate to get the car from the Netherlands to Kuwait and they’ll also be getting all my paperwork done. They’re pretty pricey compared to other companies, but their customer service is great, I’m communicating with them in English by phone and email (haven’t visited them in person yet), and they’ve been updating me with photos on the progress of my car. The company also belongs to a friend of mine so I feel really comfortable dealing with them. Other companies I approached either didn’t take me seriously, only communicated in Arabic or were pretty slow in responding to simple questions or requests.

The car is now expected to arrive at the end of August and once the car arrives I’ll post Part 2 with information on the registration process.

Last month I posted about how I was going to be switching to MyUS from Posta Plus’s MyBox service because based on the MyUS online rate calculator, I would be saving a ton of money.

Spoiler: That didn’t happen.

In fact not only did I not save any money by switching (I ended up paying a lot more), but the whole experience has caused me a lot of frustration. Not even sure where to begin because I’ve basically had issues and unexplained costs with 4 out the 5 packages I’ve shipped with them. Firstly for those of you who don’t know what MyUS or MyBox is, they’re both US mail forwarding companies. This means they provide you with a US mailbox and you can ship stuff to it and they’ll then ship the items to you here in Kuwait.

Since the start of the month, I’ve used MyUS five times. The service has been pretty quick, the package would arrive to the MyUS facilities in the States and then within a day it’s shipped to me in Kuwait. The problem is with all the hidden costs, the inaccurate “Shipping Rate Calculator” and how all my packages were being repackaged into heavier boxes to increase their shipping weight.

According to MyUS, when a package first arrives they weigh it and list the weight in your account. Then before shipping, they re-weigh the package and then charge you for that weight. This is where the problem occurs.

Weight According to UPS: 1.1 lbs.
Weight According to MyUS on Arrival: 1.3 lbs.
Weight According to MyUS on Departure: 2.5 lbs.

I confronted MyUS about this. How did my 1.1 lbs. package go from weighing 1.1 to 2.5. They denied any wrongdoing and sent me a photo of the shipping label from UPS which states it weighs 2 lbs (pic below).

I was like ok great so will you be refunding me the 0.5 lbs. difference I was charged? They responded with the following:

Thank you for contacting us. It is not an error. If you see the photos the indicated weight of your package with UPS Tracking #: 1ZE617090393761544 is 2 lbs when we received it from your merchant. And all packages arrives in our facility undergo re-weigh. So the final weight for this package with AWB# 100044466726 is 2.50 lb.

That email actually contradicts them because inside my account it shows that when they received it from the merchant the package weighed 1.3 lbs. (screenshot below). But in any case, how did a re-weigh increase the package weight? And where did the 1.3 lbs weight come from? Nobody knows…

But that actually summarizes my experience with MyUS. They’re definitely more expensive than MyBox for sure but that’s only half the problem. Their biggest issue is that nothing is ever clear. I had one package that had an unexplained charge of $18.5, when I asked them about it turned out because inside my package was a small bottle of cleaning fluid and that’s considered hazardous and requires special handling. Ok fine at least let me know ahead of time or at least after charging me that amount let me know what it’s for. Why do I have to email and ask about it?

My MacBook Air was shipped with the option “FedEx Economy” instead of “Budget Economy” which is the preference I have in my mailbox settings. When I asked them why they told me any item with a battery can’t be shipped with “Budget Economy”. That would be understandable except the option “Budget Economy” actually uses “FedEx Economy” as the carrier to ship. They’re over-complicated and have a lot of holes in their system.

Overall they just felt sleazy and I really don’t like that. I asked people on Reddit if they faced similar issues and turns out I wasn’t the only.

On a positive note, they seem to be good to use on very heavy packages. The only issue I didn’t have with them was with 1 package and that package weighed 18.48 lbs. It cost me around KD28 to ship with them which was that only time their online shipping calculator had quoted me accurately. That same package would have cost me at least KD35 with PostaPlus.

So would I recommend MyUS? For regular shipments no I would not. I faced an issue with every single package except for one and four out of my five packages would have cost me less to ship with MyBox. The only time I’d recommend MyUS is if you have a really heavy shipment but other than that I’m personally heading back to MyBox for my day to day purchases and I’m going to continue to recommend them.

Update: Just got a shipment from MyUS today and it’s a total disaster. Firstly they charged me $18.50 extra for the shipment because they said my shipment contained flammable liquid, turns out the liquid isn’t flammable. Then they ripped open one of the packages inside and completely damaged one of the sleeves from a vinyl record. They’re a mess!

Google just made taking the bus a lot easier in Kuwait by integrating it into Google Maps. You can now plug in your location and destination and Google will guide you to the nearest bus stop and tell you which bus to take, how often that bus comes by and how long the ride will be. Try it out yourself!

via Reddit

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Deliveroo Kuwait (@deliveroo_kw) on Jul 19, 2019 at 2:50am PDT

Explains how their delivery guys manage to stay so lively and cheerful in this heat.

Last week I was contacted by Chevrolet asking me if I’d be interested in test driving their fully electric car, the Chevrolet Bolt EV. Although I wasn’t interested in the Bolt specifically, I was interested in experiencing life with an electric car so I agreed to borrow the car for the weekend.

Right now I don’t think there is any other company in Kuwait that sells a fully electric car, I know both Toyota and BMW sell hybrids (a combination of regular petrol engines and electric motors) but can’t think of anybody else that sells a fully electric car so Chevrolet I guess are the first.

First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, the Chevy Bolt isn’t a pretty looking car to put it nicely. If I’m driving around in an electric car I want it to look like an electric car and I guess by that I mean I want it to look futuristic with lots of things glowing blue and lots of sharp and angular shapes, like a car that wouldn’t look out of place on the set of Tron. The Bolt looks like an entry-level budget crossover vehicle and the car I picked up was a super boring white. But, I already knew that the Bolt wasn’t pretty, for me this was all going to be about the electric experience.

I picked up the car on Thursday and it was half-charged showing me I had a range of 161KM left till empty. That was fine since I only had a few errands to run and then I was heading home so I could charge the car there. There are no Chevy fast-charging stations around Kuwait, there is a Tesla fast-charging station at Al Shaheed Park but that isn’t compatible with the Chevy charge port.

If you want to charge the Bolt you need to use the charging cable that came with it which allows you to plug it into any regular power socket. My building’s underground parking lot has power sockets all around so when I got home I just plugged the car into one and headed upstairs. A few hours later I decided to check on the charge status and was surprised to see it barely charged. So I started playing around with the car settings and noticed the car had two charging options, 6Amps and 10Amps. According to the car infotainment screen, the car was currently charging at 6Amps (which is the default setting) and that the car would be fully charged by 1:15AM on Saturday. Keep in mind it was Thursday night at that point so 6Amps wasn’t gonna work for me so I switched the car to 10Amps charging. At 10Amps, the car would be fully charged by 1:45PM the next day. Not fast enough, but still a lot better than the original estimate I got.

Next morning I left the house early around 8AM and the car was around 80% charged showing me I had a 261km range. I later found out after reading the manual that it takes around 33 hours to fully charge with the 10Amp setting. That’s just too long although I guess if you’re charging the car every time you park it then it’s not so bad, but in my case, it was starting to give me anxiety. Friday I had a bunch of things I needed to do and by the time I got home that evening, I had around 60KM range left. Unlike with fuel, if you’re close to empty you can’t just fill up at any gas station, so once I saw my range drop to 60 I was like shit, I need to get home now. I really don’t need more anxiety in my life…

Other than the whole charging debacle the car felt like a normal car to drive. I liked the minimalist dash display which was the most electric thing about the car and it was a fairly comfy vehicle to drive. Although not a fast car, the electric motors made the car feel fast since acceleration from a standstill was fairly instant. You know, thinking about it now, I think the biggest issue I have with the car isn’t the looks, or the interior or the slow charging. I think the biggest issue I have with the Bolt is with the price which is causing me to set my expectations so high. The Chevy Bolt is selling for KD13,000 which might be considered affordable compared to other electric cars, but compared to what you’d get from a similarly priced petrol-engined car, it just feels overpriced.

If you’d like to test drive the car yourself or check it out you can do so by passing by the local Chevrolet dealer. They’re on instagram @chevroletalghanim

After closing down their original location near the Kuwait Towers, looks like Chili’s is reopening again on the Gulf Road but this time closer to Green Island. The place looks practically done and could open any day now and they’re also opening a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf right next door. Here is the location on Google Maps.

This got me thinking if I should revisit all the old school restaurants of the 90s like Chili’s, TGIF, Johnny Carino’s, Nino’s, etc., and do some sort of nostalgic review? The best of the old school maybe? I don’t know, I need to think about this more.

The current Municipal Council building would be turned into a museum under the umbrella of the National Council of Culture, Arts and Letters, said Chairman Osama Al-Otaibi Monday.

After relocating to a new one, the old building would be preserved due to its historic significance, Al-Otaibi told a press conference. Source

I’m so glad they realized the importance of the building and won’t be demolishing it. After the decision to demolish Sawaber and the Ice Skating Rink, I wouldn’t have been too surprised if they had decided to demolish this building as well.

The Kuwait Municipality building was designed by the architect Sami Abdul Baki and constructed between 1959 and 1962 by The Arab Contractors. I tried to find information on the architect but really couldn’t find anything other than a design he had proposed for the Martyr’s Square in Lebanon that never came to be. Interestingly, the Kuwait Municipality building features arcs similar to the one in his Martyr’s Square design (check below). So either that was his design signature or, maybe since it was never executed in Lebanon he decided to implement it into this building.

If anyone knows what other buildings he might have designed in Kuwait let me know in the comments below.

Image on top and building information was taken from Modern Architecture Kuwait 1949-1989